Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

Seen today on the back of a Chevy Tahoe next to an NRA window sticker:

"Netanyahu for President"

Now how many shot-out tires would this gas-guzzler have had if this were a "Rabin for President" bumper sticker and 1996. Or first-stint Netanyahu and 1999. Or [insert any foreign leader here] and 2007?

Rat Patrol wrote:Seen today on the back of a Chevy Tahoe next to an NRA window sticker:

"Netanyahu for President"

Now how many shot-out tires would this gas-guzzler have had if this were a "Rabin for President" bumper sticker and 1996. Or first-stint Netanyahu and 1999. Or [insert any foreign leader here] and 2007?

#realmuricans

Five'll get you ten that the owner of the truck also mutters about all the Jews in Hollywood.

Rat Patrol wrote:Seen today on the back of a Chevy Tahoe next to an NRA window sticker:

"Netanyahu for President"

Now how many shot-out tires would this gas-guzzler have had if this were a "Rabin for President" bumper sticker and 1996. Or first-stint Netanyahu and 1999. Or [insert any foreign leader here] and 2007?

#realmuricans

Five'll get you ten that the owner of the truck also mutters about all the Jews in Hollywood.

Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

Thanks for posting the link—it was rather mesmerizing listening. I had no idea that there were conspiracy theorists, left and right, about Rabin's murder. The right's interpretation sounds similar to conspiracy theories about Robert Kennedy's killing. Sirhan Sirhan confessed and the ballistics match up (mostly; there's the suggestion that there were too many bullet holes in the kitchen) and so they claim that he was a Manchurian candidate—hypnotized. Which they kind of have to do when the assassin admits to the crime, which is what happened with Rabin. So you get the weirdness of the brothers being irritated that people are trying to rob them of their place in Jewish history. Crazy stuff. (As an aside, that's one of the perhaps superficial reasons why I'm skeptical about Lee Harvey Oswald: zealot assassins confess their deed because they regard themselves as heroes. Yet Oswald, a supposed hardcore and unhinged Leninist, denied it all. Certainly not conclusive proof, but it's something that sticks out as inconsistent with how political assassinations play out.)

Dr. Medulla wrote:(As an aside, that's one of the perhaps superficial reasons why I'm skeptical about Lee Harvey Oswald: zealot assassins confess their deed because they regard themselves as heroes. Yet Oswald, a supposed hardcore and unhinged Leninist, denied it all. Certainly not conclusive proof, but it's something that sticks out as inconsistent with how political assassinations play out.)

The part about LHO that bugs me, coming out of the Communist movement, is that he took two photos, one holding the Daily Worker, and the other holding the Militant. The former was the organ of the Communist Party USA, the Moscow-dictated party, and the latter is that of the Socialist Workers Party, a Trotskyist group vehemently opposed to Moscow and the CPUSA. The split between Stalinists/Soviet-aligned commies and Trotskyists is so damned vicious that you would never see somebody reading both papers, let alone posing with both. Fishy as hell.

Also, he didn't get interviewed by the FBI after returning from the USSR (after having defected!) with a Russian wife, right? That's really... odd.

I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

Dr. Medulla wrote:(As an aside, that's one of the perhaps superficial reasons why I'm skeptical about Lee Harvey Oswald: zealot assassins confess their deed because they regard themselves as heroes. Yet Oswald, a supposed hardcore and unhinged Leninist, denied it all. Certainly not conclusive proof, but it's something that sticks out as inconsistent with how political assassinations play out.)

The part about LHO that bugs me, coming out of the Communist movement, is that he took two photos, one holding the Daily Worker, and the other holding the Militant. The former was the organ of the Communist Party USA, the Moscow-dictated party, and the latter is that of the Socialist Workers Party, a Trotskyist group vehemently opposed to Moscow and the CPUSA. The split between Stalinists/Soviet-aligned commies and Trotskyists is so damned vicious that you would never see somebody reading both papers, let alone posing with both. Fishy as hell.

Huh. I didn't know about that inconsistency. If you're actually a Marxist nut, you do fucking well know the distinction between Stalinists and Trotskyists.

Also, he didn't get interviewed by the FBI after returning from the USSR (after having defected!) with a Russian wife, right? That's really... odd.

We was interviewed for a couple hours—debriefed, really—then set on his way. Maybe that was SOP but it sounds crazy to me. Guy in the army defects to the Soviet Union, presumably blabs, the defects back and not only is he not jailed, he and his Russian wife are allowed to come back with less fuss than someone caught smuggling dope. Even ignoring ballistics and physics and all that, so much of Oswald doesn't smell right.

Dr. Medulla wrote:(As an aside, that's one of the perhaps superficial reasons why I'm skeptical about Lee Harvey Oswald: zealot assassins confess their deed because they regard themselves as heroes. Yet Oswald, a supposed hardcore and unhinged Leninist, denied it all. Certainly not conclusive proof, but it's something that sticks out as inconsistent with how political assassinations play out.)

The part about LHO that bugs me, coming out of the Communist movement, is that he took two photos, one holding the Daily Worker, and the other holding the Militant. The former was the organ of the Communist Party USA, the Moscow-dictated party, and the latter is that of the Socialist Workers Party, a Trotskyist group vehemently opposed to Moscow and the CPUSA. The split between Stalinists/Soviet-aligned commies and Trotskyists is so damned vicious that you would never see somebody reading both papers, let alone posing with both. Fishy as hell.

Huh. I didn't know about that inconsistency. If you're actually a Marxist nut, you do fucking well know the distinction between Stalinists and Trotskyists.

My apologies, turns out he holds both papers in the same photo. Which is even fucking weirder, actually. Nobody in either group who saw someone holding both would let that person join.

Also, he didn't get interviewed by the FBI after returning from the USSR (after having defected!) with a Russian wife, right? That's really... odd.

We was interviewed for a couple hours—debriefed, really—then set on his way. Maybe that was SOP but it sounds crazy to me. Guy in the army defects to the Soviet Union, presumably blabs, the defects back and not only is he not jailed, he and his Russian wife are allowed to come back with less fuss than someone caught smuggling dope. Even ignoring ballistics and physics and all that, so much of Oswald doesn't smell right.

OK, so he was debriefed, but nothing extensive. That's still really weird for a defector come back.

I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy